CHRIS­TINE Greased Fright­en­ing

Di­rec­tor John Car­pen­ter Cast Keith Gor­don, John stock­well, alexan­dra Paul, Harry dean stan­ton blu-ray de­but Chris­tine could’ve been a campy mess. The plot’s pretty daft: nerdy Arnie (Keith Gor­don) buys a clapped-out old banger and, in restor­ing it, finds him­self be­com­ing cooler, meaner, and more able to stand up to bul­lies – es­pe­cially be­cause his car is sen­tient and can run them over for him.

An­other di­rec­tor might’ve let you laugh at Chris­tine revving her en­gine and wink­ing her head­lights. Not John Car­pen­ter. He ap­proaches Stephen King’s story with deadly se­ri­ous­ness. Arnie’s trans­for­ma­tion is strik­ing and scary, and though there’s not much on-screen vi­o­lence, the threat is crys­tal clear: this is a story about boys com­ing of age.

The sound­track com­bines ’50s rock and roll hits with Car­pen­ter’s trade­mark synths in a way that’s al­ter­na­tively at­mo­spheric and funny, and this crisp new Blu-ray trans­fer looks as pris­tine as Chris­tine her­self when she first rolled off the pro­duc­tion line. This film isn’t usu­ally cited among Car­pen­ter’s best, but maybe it’s time for a re­think.